Summary

Administrative Information

Access

Available for reference

Provenance

The papers were acquired by the Library in 1941.

Scope and Content

The papers consist chiefly of Daisy Bates manuscript and
background material for The native tribes of Western Australia,
written during Bates period of service with the Western Australian
Government from 1904 to 1912.

Originally the compilation was to have ten chapters, but by the time the
Library acquired the papers they were divided into thirteen sections, followed
by eleven loosely grouped forms of material. Superimposed on this arrangement
was the division, by Bates herself, of the total collection into 99
folios. These folios are summarised on page 23 of The native
tribes of Western Australia (Canberra, National Library of Australia,
1985).

Several versions of the draft of The native tribes of Western
Australia will be encountered within each folio. These versions are
explained in detail by Isobel White on page 24 of the publication, but
basically there is a pencil longhand version accompanied by typescript
versions, the later drafts being produced by Miss E. Watts, the secretary
provided by the Commonwealth to sort and type Bates papers. In the
detailed list of the papers the longhand version is identified by the symbol
MSS following the title.

Related materials

The original material in MS 365 has been copied onto 55 microfilms (Mfm
G 24,696-750). Transcripts of the collection, made many years ago by the
Commonwealth, are also held in the Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide.

As well as the photographs and maps contained in the manuscript
collection, there are images of Daisy Bates in the Pictorial Collection and a
number of maps in the Map Collection. Please consult appendices 3-5 and staff
of these areas for further information.

Other related manuscript collections include:

MS 1830 A letter from Leon OBroin to Reverend Thomas Leen, dated
20 December 1966, concerning the birthplace and forebears of Daisy Bates.

MS 3197 Letters from Daisy Bates to the Reverend John Mathew, and press
cuttings and samples of hair from Aborigines.

MS 6481 Papers of Bates biographer, Elizabeth Salter. They include
research material for her book Daisy Bates: queen of the never never.

MS 7739 Various items relating to Eleanor Witcombes research on
Daisy Bates.

MS 7374 Copies of correspondence, articles and press cuttings relating
to Daisy Bates and W.P. Hurst. The originals are held in the La Trobe Library,
State Library of Victoria.

Biographical note

Daisy May Bates was born on 16 October 1863 in Tipperary, Ireland, the
daughter of James Edward ODwyer and Marguarette Hunt. Raised in England,
she migrated to Australia in 1884 and lived briefly in Townsville before
obtaining employment as a governess at Berry, N.S.W. In 1884 she met and
married Edwin (Breaker) Morant. On February 1885 she (probably
bigamously) married Jack Bates, a cattleman, and they had a son Arnold in 1896.

For five years from 1894, Bates lived in London working as a journalist
on the Review of Reviews. Bates returned to Australia in 1899,
investigating ill-treatment of Aborigines for the London Times.
Bates first contact with Aboriginal people was at the Trappist mission at
Beagle Bay, north of Broome. In 1901 she temporarily rejoined her husband on
the cattle station at Roebuck Plains, where tribes from the Broome district
were camped. She began collecting vocabularies and observed sacred and ritual
life.

In 1904, Bates was appointed by the Western Australian Government to
research the tribes of the State. Bates concentrated at first on the Bibbulmun
tribe of the Maamba reserve in the south west where she recorded data on
language, myth, religion and kinship. By 1910, Bates had completed a
substantial manuscript on the Aborigines. Its publication was delayed by the
arrival of an expedition led by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown to study the social
anthropology of Aborigines of the north-west. Bates became interested in
Aboriginal welfare after observing the fate of Aborigines exiled on the islands
of Bernier and Dorre.

In 1912 she camped at Eucla (S.A.) amongst the remnants of the Mirning
tribe on the southern fringe of the Nullarbor Plain and in 1914 attended
meetings of the anthropological section of the British Association for the
advancement of Science. In 1915 she returned to the Mirnings area, near
Yalata. In 1918 she moved to Ooldea (S.A.) where she continued her welfare
work. She was appointed C.B.E. in 1934. Throughout her life, Bates wrote
numerous newspapers articles on Aboriginal life and was able to influence
government in improving conditions for Aboriginal people. Her autobiography,
The passing of the Aborigines, was published in 1938.

In 1945 Bates moved to Adelaide where she later died at Prospect on 18
April 1951.

The original list for MS 365 has been revised so that the confusion
arising from the variety of numbers used could be reduced, whilst still
maintaining the original arrangement.

On the left hand side of the detailed list are the Sections, identified
by upper case Roman numerals. These are subdivided into Parts, identified by
Arabic numerals. These Parts are in turn subdivided by lower case letters of
the alphabet and finally by lower case Roman numerals.

On the right hand side are Daisy Bates folio numbers, which are
subdivided by the Librarys own system of items (i.e. pages). Since every
piece of paper has been item-numbered, some of the gaps in
numbering on the list are in fact the covers or binders containing the
manuscripts.

For stocktake and shelving purposes the list is subdivided still further
by manuscript box numbers.

Readers are advised that the most reliable method of requesting Bates
material is by folio/item number, or by manuscript box number if larger
quantities are required.

Copying

Whilst the original papers of Daisy Bates are owned by the National
Library, copyright in items written by Bates (with the exception of the
typescript The passing of Aborigines) is owned by the University of
Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia. Under the terms of the
Copyright Act, 1968, copies of items by Bates could be supplied for
retention by individual requestors only with the consent of the copyright
holder, whether for the purpose of private research or for any other purpose.

From 8 April 1986, however, the University of Adelaide authorised the
National Library of Australia to supply requestors, for the purpose of private
study or research, with single copies of documents or illustrative matter from
the Daisy Bates collection in which it holds copyright, on condition that the
requestor signs an agreement. Copies of this agreement, which is additional to
the normal photocopy declaration form required by law, are available on request
from the attendant in the Manuscript Reading Room.

Readers are reminded that copyright in items in the Bates collection
written by people other than Bates will still be protected by the Copyright
act in the manner indicated by the first paragraph. Please ask a librarian
for advice on copying items of this nature.

Table of Contents

Summary of Sections and Folios Page 7

Detailed list Pages 8-42

Appendix 1: Correspondence in Folios 87 & 97 Pages 43-47

Appendix 2: Newspaper and magazine articles in Folio 88 Pages 48-54

Appendix 3: Daisy Bates special map collection Pages 55-60

Appendix 4: Index to photographs in Folios 94-96 by folio number Pages
61-69

Appendix 5: Index to photographs in Folios 94-96 by district Pages 70-80

Aborigines. Published in pamphlet form. folio 65/31-75 Efforts towards
civilising and christianising the Aborigines of Australia. A rough summary (not
the MS of A rough summary (not the MS of the pamphlet). Paper given to Lord
Northcote

Newspaper clippings  Western Mail folio 88/323-411 List
of articles published in West Australian. folio 88/413 Newspaper
clippings  West Australian folio 88/414-442 List of articles
published in The Australasian. folio 88/443-446 Newspaper clippings
published in The Australasian. folio 88/447-553 List of articles and
newspaper clippings published in

The Childrens Magazine. folio 88/554-591 List of articles
published in My Magazine and Arthur Mees

List of articles published in various newspapers. folio 88/610-612
Newspaper clippings  The Advertiser, Adelaide. folio 88/613-618
List of articles published in The Register, Adelaide. folio 88/619
Newspaper clippings  The Register. folio 88/620-634 List of
articles published in The Telegraph, Brisbane. folio 88/635

Newspaper clippings  The Telegraph. folio 88/636-642 List
of articles published in The Argus  Melbourne and The Argus
Camera Supplement. folio 88/643 Newspaper clippings  The
Argus. folio 88/644-653 List of articles published in The Herald,
Melbourne. folio 88/654

Newspaper clipping published in The Herald.folio 88/655-656
List articles published in The Sydney Morning Herald.folio 88/657
Newspaper clippings published in The Sydney Morning Herald folio
88/658-680 List of articles published in The Sydney Sun, Evening
News 

.Box 46Books and pamphlets; evidence before Royal Commission
on Rottnest Island. The Australian Aboriginal and The Christian
Church by Herbert Pitts, 1914. folio 89/1 Guide to the Australian
Ethnological Collection : exhibited in the

National Museum of Victoria by Sir Baldwin Spencer, 1922. folio
89/2 The Prehistoric Arts, Manufactures, Works, Weapons, etc., of the

Aborigines of Australia by Thomas Worsnop, 1897. folio 89/3-4
The Northern Tribes of Central Australia by Baldwin Spencer and

by Herbert Basedow. folio 89/6 Descriptive vocabulary amongst the
Aborigines of Western

Australia by George Fletcher Moore, 1842. folio 90/1 The
Customs and Traditions of the Aboriginal Natives of North

Western Australia by John G. Withnell, 1901. folio 90/2
Moorundie, on the River Murray (loose page). folio 90/3 Terra
Australis (map). folio 90/4 Two Representative Tribes of
Queensland by John Mathew,

APPENDIX 2: Newspaper and magazine articles in Folio
88

These newspaper and magazine articles have been arranged according to
Daisy Bates' classifications scheme. In some cases, articles may contain
references to more than one subject. Numbers in right hand column refer to the
item-number or numbers within folio 88.

65. Rain map of Australia for
the year 1918. On verso: Maps showing rainfall for each month during 1918.
Issued under the authority of the Honourable Minister of State for Home and
Territories, by H.A. Hunt, Commonwealth Meteorologist 18 January 1919 (formerly
NLA MS 365/93/31)

111. A map of the Travel of
George Washington. Compiled and drawn in the Cartographic Section of the
National Geographic Society for the National Geographic Magazine.
Scale 1:2,500,000 or 39.5 miles to 1 inch. Copyright 1931.Includes 5 insets:
New York and The Lower Hudson, Tidewater Virginia, Philadelphia and vicinity,
Boston and vicinity, Mount Verdon. (formerly NLA MS 365/93/22)

113. Pacific Ocean.
Compiled and drawn in the Cartographic Section of the National
Geographic magazine. Scale 1:35 mil. Or 552.4 miles to 1 inch at the
equator. December 1936. (formerly NLA MS 365/93/24)